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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28183539">don't you know my name</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowfantasy/pseuds/rainbowfantasy'>rainbowfantasy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>just be still with me [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Soldiers, Cloud Strife's Terrible Self-esteem, First Meetings, Gen, References to Experimentation on Babies, child endangerment</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:14:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,503</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28183539</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowfantasy/pseuds/rainbowfantasy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I told you I'd make an idiot of myself,” Cloud said. “Why didn't you just introduce me on a transport? I could have thrown up and made a better impression!"</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Prequel one-shot: how Angeal, Genesis, Sephiroth, Zack and Cloud all met in the JBSWM verse.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angeal Hewley &amp; Genesis Rhapsodos &amp; Sephiroth, Zack Fair &amp; Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>just be still with me [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064600</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>158</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>don't you know my name</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I got talking about some of the little background details I keep for JBSWM and some of those were how AGSZC all met each other and how it went. It led to the decision to write it out because I like characters to have a history and thought it might be fun to add a glimpse of it in this universe. You might recognise some of the scenes from being referenced to in the main story.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>  </p><p>Genesis and Angeal met for the first time in the third week of July.</p><p>It's not counted at their first meeting by either, given Genesis was eleven weeks old and Angeal only eight days old so neither remember the experience. It's just as well, or Genesis might have taken offence to the fact that Angeal was far more interested in his lunch than on the babbling baby trying to grab his foot. </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Genesis met Angeal on the day after what he considered to be the absolute worst day of his life, which happened  at the time to be his seventh birthday. </p><p>His parents had left three days before on Very Important Business and said they'd try to make it back in time for his birthday, but if not, they could do something after their business trip. Genesis, being Genesis but perhaps even a little more so at six, had been so sure this was some kind of ploy to surprise him because they couldn't possibly miss his birthday. It was the one day where he could be sure he wouldn't hear about how he was interrupting or he was being too loud or can they just get a few hours to themselves please because they were Very Important People with Very Important Things they had to do. They always had cake and dinner together, then there would be warm apple with cinnamon and cloves and then he could pick any book he he wanted and they would read it together and that was how his birthdays were so they couldn't possibly miss it. They were just making a production of it, which made it all the better. </p><p>The hours ticked by. Dinner came and went. By the time the sun was down, Genesis had decided that they weren't coming at all because they'd just decided he was too difficult – his mother had always said he was a Very Difficult Person – and they were never coming back.</p><p>Which was fine! He didn't even want them to come back!</p><p>Besides, he was seven now, which was basically an adult and he didn't need anyone anyway. </p><p>Come dawn, he packed a few things into a bag and left the grounds. This was when he had found the old cave system, which would have worked just fine if he had thought to pack for more than a day, if there hadn't been monsters in the tunnels and if the nasty scratch he'd gotten from one of the monsters which had been scared away by something in the tunnels hadn't gotten very red and swollen over hours and hours (actually only about an hour but he was seven, give him a break). By the time he realised he was starting to feel dizzy, he knew something was wrong and he needed to go back.</p><p>It was a testament to sheer obstinence that he managed to get almost back to the village before crumbling, vomiting at the side of the road and barely stifling the urge to cry despite the fact he was now a Grown Up and Grown Ups don't cry.</p><p>So what if he just died here? It would serve his parents right for leaving, they shouldn't have!</p><p>That was when a tree asked if he was okay, which was very peculiar because he was pretty sure trees didn't talk. </p><p>Except it wasn't a tree at all.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>It was Angeal, who had wandered away from his mother putting out the washing on the line and had been climbing his way along the trees on the edge of town. Even if he had been told he shouldn't go up and bother people, there were only three other children in the village and this wasn't one of them so he wasn't sure what to make of that. So Angeal did what he was taught to do if there was trouble and slowly walked Genesis back into town to go see if she'd know what to do.</p><p>“Are you visiting?” Angeal asked, because they were going so slowly that it felt weird to not talk.</p><p>“No,” Genesis told him. ”I live here.”</p><p>“Where?” Angeal was sure he'd remember if he'd seen him somewhere.</p><p>Genesis had pointed to the house on the hill, which Angeal only knew because he wasn't supposed to go up there. But this didn't count, no one had said anything about someone from up there coming down here. </p><p>That didn't mean his mother wasn't frantic when she caught sight of him, running up and making him promise to stop running off because it made her worry and he really hadn't meant to do that. It was just really boring to sit down outside quietly and his mother could get really funny when they were outside sometimes. Funny weird, not funny like it was a joke. If it was a joke, he didn't get it. </p><p>“What happened to you?” his mother asked the other boy.</p><p>“I'm probably dying,” Genesis declared.</p><p>“Come on,” his mother said, completely unfazed. “I might have an anti-dying potion somewhere”</p><p>His mother reached for him, placing her hand on the back of his head in a signal he'd long learned meant he wasn't to stray from her side.</p><p>“I was trying to help,” Angeal told her.</p><p>“I know,” his mother said, scooping the other boy up with her other arm and ushering both back to the house.</p><p>By the time his father had come home, the two were thick as thieves and no amount of insistence from Genesis's mother that they really shouldn't be mixing as they weren't the same '<em>sort'</em> was going to stop them.</p><p>By the time eight rolled around, they had largely given up trying to part them and the two were almost completely inseparable. </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Angeal met Sephiroth in the same way most people did: through the radio and articles written about him.</p><p>On one particularly memorable occasion, they televised his return from Wutai and he and Genesis had gathered together in the parlor of Genesis's home to watch the impassable faced SOLDIER answer a handful of questions before he was scurried away by people in suits.</p><p>“I thought he'd be taller,” Genesis said. </p><p>If anything, Angeal had inherited the preoccupation with Sephiroth from his best friend who didn't so much like guy as he was completely and totally obsessed. Maybe that wasn't fair, because that was what liking was for Genesis – he didn't so much like or dislike things as he dismissed things or became passionately obsessed with them, he didn't really have a middle ground.</p><p>“How old is he?” Angeal asked, because he looked so much smaller than the SOLDIERs he returned with.</p><p>“About our age, I think.” Genesis replied. “No one knows for sure. Perhaps we can ask him we get there!”</p><p>That had been the new career Genesis had settled on within a month of all of this starting: he wanted to be in SOLDIER. It wasn't like the other careers he'd decided he wanted over the years, everything from famous art thief  – </p><p>(<em>“Wouldn't it defeat the point if you were famous?” Angeal had asked.</em></p><p><em>“Not if you're smart about it,” Genesis had told him. “And I'm very smart.</em>”)</p><p>– to secret agent, though what sort of secret agent he would be would have to be a secret but not so secret that he wouldn't tell Angeal. Angeal was very trustworthy, he had insisted, and people would know that he would always have to be the exception.</p><p>Now he wanted to be a SOLDIER. Except instead of fading with the old and going out the window the moment something new and interesting had come along, like the time he had wanted to start a detective agency after reading a book about it or when he'd wanted to go to some acting school in Midgar but his parents had wanted him to remain at home and he was sure that his entire life was over.</p><p><br/>
(<em>He'd even written a will that last time, which more or less said he wanted Angeal to have his books which were the only thing he really loved beyond anything else and he'd tried to take it as a compliment.</em>)</p><p>“Your parents were okay with the lessons?” Angeal asked. </p><p>There were certain things in SOLDIER you could prepare for, like weapons or magic training. You could learn there – Angeal would have to, because even if they could afford to prepare, his mother was extremely unhappy with his decision to follow Genesis to the SOLDIER program. Some people could just get a head start.</p><p>Genesis would be fine, he had always been a natural at magic –  a fact to which the amount of repaints several rooms of the house could attest. Fencing and weapons training was something everyone received when they got there, but he wasn't surprised Genesis had asked to learn it. He was a little surprised his parents had been okay with it – his temper did seem to trigger a lot of fires and one very memorable incident where one of the summons Genesis seemed to inexplicably find burst through right to the roof much to his best friends delight. Angeal had assumed the idea of having him another lethal weapon or two wasn't high on their priorities list.</p><p>“Yes,” Genesis smiled, wild and infectious the way he did when he was really happy about something. “They think it might help teach me discipline.”</p><p>Angeal snorted.</p><p>Genesis's smile grew. “Oh, I know. Sometimes I think they don't know me at all!”</p><p>In the end, Angeal had tried to focus on other parts of SOLDIER – the ability to get out there and protect people and make a difference while also having both living and medical expenses paid so he could help his parents was high on the list. </p><p>It wasn't that he didn't like Sephiroth.</p><p>Angeal just couldn't shake the feeling that even if he had no expression to indicate it, he seemed uncomfortable to have people prodding into his life and maybe one less person invading his privacy would mean something.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Sephiroth met Angeal two days after he had been given his promotion to SOLDIER First Class. </p><p>It wasn't altogether unusual for him to be asked to perform for investors, the press, even the president himself but what was unusual was his opponent. Fresh out of cadets, SOLDIER Third Class Angeal Hewley was at least one class too low to be expected to spar with him. Sephiroth didn't spar with Third classes. They were too fragile. In the last eighteen months, he had not been asked to spar much at all but that had more to do with having spent perhaps two of those months in Midgar and the rest doing tours of duty as a Second Class. After his single unit cut through a particularly difficult line of defence in Wutai, they had shipped him back to have a very public promotion to First Class and now he was standing beside Professor Hojo in the training rooms like he had when he was a head smaller.</p><p>It wasn't a long fight, but he was pleasantly surprised to find himself having to think and not just to stop himself from hurting Angeal. Surprisingly strong, for a Third. It bode well for the next batch of Thirds if this is what was coming out of it. A lot had died in his most recent tour, but no one ever wanted to talk about that part of it. Perhaps these would last longer.</p><p>“SOLDIER,” Sephiroth spoke up after they had been dismissed, even if he wasn't sure why he did. “You should vary your blocking more.”</p><p>Angeal smiled, from his place sitting on the floor. “Thank you” he said. “Usually it works but not with you.”</p><p>“You're used to facing a weaker opponent,” Sephiroth replied. “I'm not one. You need challenge to improve.”</p><p>“I'll remember that,” Angeal nodded. “Do you want to try again?”</p><p>Surprisingly, yes.</p><p>Even if it wasn't completely different to fighting a Second, the sheer fact this was someone at the beginning of their career instead of several years into it made him feel – curious. </p><p>“You'll need to practice,” Sephiroth told him. “We will spar if you improve.”</p><p>“I'll do my best,” Angeal smiled. “I won't keep you if you have other plans. I'm just going to run a few sims.”</p><p>Sephiroth hesitated, “I can spare a little more time.”</p><p>Not that he was exactly sure why he chose to stay. Perhaps just to break up the monotony of fighting sims and monsters until he was sent back to the front, perhaps because he could see some potential in him that maybe he could help with. Maybe because Angeal had given him the choice about what to do instead of insisting on another round.</p><p>That didn't happen often.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The first words out of Sephiroth, war hero, SOLDIER First Class, envy of every person in that room – Genesis included – whether they would admit it or not were to tell him that his form was off which it <em>wasn't!</em> </p><p>It was humiliating!</p><p>“Your centre of balance is wrong,” Sephiroth told him. “If someone kicks you to your left hip, you will not be able to move to block it in time.”</p><p>“Maybe you couldn't,” Genesis muttered. </p><p>Sephiroth did not reply.</p><p>What he did do was bring his sword – his bloody ridiculous sword – around and while moving to keep himself from getting stabbed, he found himself kicked hard enough that he went onto the floor. In the split second Genesis realised exactly what that smug, self-important bastard was about to do, he twisted his own blade which shattered against said bloody ridiculous sword and cut in two.</p><p>“Nice of you to disarm yourself to save me doing it,” Sephiroth replied.</p><p>Genesis reacted on instinct and threw the remains of the blade, embedding it into the wall before he stormed off.</p><p>The last thing he heard was Sephiroth saying that at least his aim was 'adequate'. </p><p>
  <em>Adequate! </em>
</p><p>Genesis had never been merely adequate at anything he did before! Either he was a roaring success or it simply wasn't worth doing. If he was going to have to live his life being adequate around a condescending ass then he wanted to throw himself off the plate and onto the mercy of the Goddess because the fates had never been so cruel as to brand him as a mere single step from the dreaded descriptor of  mediocre.  </p><p>What an asshole!</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Cloud Strife met Zack on what was a very bad day, perhaps the worst day in a very long time but not the worst day of his life.</p><p>Another rejection. The last time he would apply for SOLDIER and there it was, the letter in his trembling hands. It was over. It was time to keep his head down, serve out his last year of service then try to go find something he was good at because he sure as shit wasn't good at this.  Sitting down on the steps wasn't a conscious choice, but Cloud hadn't known what else to do. It was painful and humiliating every time he got one of these letters and if the ground could just open and swallow him right now, that would be great because then Tifa would never have to know what a failure he was and he would never have to admit to his mother that he couldn't hack it here.</p><p>“It can be hard to get back up again,” said a voice from behind him and Cloud felt someone clamp their hand down on his shoulder. SOLDIER Second Class Zack Fair, mentored by one of Shinra's own First Class trinity parked his butt down next to him and smiled at him.  </p><p>Cloud didn't know what to say. Shit, what do you say to someone who shouldn't look at you twice but was actually trying to be – what, comforting?</p><p>“You didn't get in?” Zack asked, as if it could possibly matter to him. Cloud shook his head, unsure of what would come out of his voice if he tried to use it right now. “There's always next time. Sometimes it's just not your year.”</p><p>“Third time,” Cloud said, his voice tight and embarrassingly, he sounded upset even to himself. It was pathetic.</p><p>“If you tried three times,” Zack paused. “I guess it must be really important to you.”</p><p>“It was my dream,” Cloud admitted. Sure, just pile on the humiliation and admit that, nice going.</p><p>Zack suddenly slapped both of his knees, “If it was your dream, you have to try again. You owe it to yourself!”</p><p>“I'm not going to get in,” Cloud said, numbly.</p><p>“Not with that attitude!” Zack stood up and bounded in front of him, his smile bright. “I've got some time to kill, let me see what you got!”</p><p>Cloud stared at him blankly. Was Zack asking him – an army grunt – to spar with someone on course for a SOLDIER First Class? “Sir?”</p><p>“What, you got something else to do?”</p><p>No, he didn't. Cloud found himself nodding.</p><p>“Alright!" Zack punched at the air. "Now, you gotta lose the sir, just call me Zack.”</p><p>There was a beat of silence where Cloud didn't know what to say. He had to be dreaming, right? There was no way this was happening. </p><p>“This is where you'd usually tell me your name,” Zack prompted.</p><p>“I'm Cloud,” he replied reflexively. </p><p>“Good to meet you, Cloud.” Zack grinned at him. “You can sit there and wallow or you can come with me and give your dreams another shot. What do you think?”</p><p>Cloud decided he didn't care if it was only a dream and he got up.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>"Zack no! I'll freeze up!” </p><p>Zack put his hands on his friends shoulders, holding them in a way he hoped Cloud found at least a little reassuring. “It's just Angeal – he's the nice one, remember?”</p><p>Cloud was still shaking his head when Zack saw Angeal come out from one of the Third class classes he was taking this year. It was now or never. Zack was hardly at the Shinra building these days, often out on missions or training somewhere with Angeal and he wanted to make sure Cloud knew that Angeal wasn't someone to be freaked out by. Sure, he could be a little prickly, especially if you didn't listen to him, but he was also kind of a big dork. He talked to his plants!</p><p>(Angeal had also made Zack talk to them when he took care of them last month but he wasn't going to admit that!)</p><p>“Angeal!” Zack waved him down, Angeal stopping to take in the sight of Zack and Cloud. </p><p>“You're supposed to be preparing for your tests,” Angeal admonished lightly.</p><p>Actually, come to think of it, he had been kind of distant lately which was so weird but maybe he was just giving him time to work on his stats until a mission he could take as a test came along. <em>First Class</em>! It gave him the squiggles in his stomach to even think about it, a chance to live the dream and become a hero. Now if he could just get Cloud more excited than nervous, they'd be great!</p><p>“I am!” Zack said. “I just wanted you to meet Cloud.”</p><p>Something must have clicked for Angeal, because Zack had told him he was helping out a SOLDIER candidate to get his own stats up before July. “You're the SOLDIER hopeful?” Angeal asked.</p><p>“Yes, sir.”</p><p>
  <em>Oh man, come on, Cloud, look up, he's not going to bite your head off.</em>
</p><p>“Zack putting you through your paces?” Angeal asked, his tone softening as maybe he realised Cloud was a bit nervous.</p><p>“Yes,” Cloud said, then quickly added, “Sir.”</p><p>Angeal looked at Zack, who shrugged. Can't blame a guy for a trying.</p><p>Maybe when it got closer to the time, Zack could introduce them properly because Cloud would be too preoccupied with the exams to be this nervous. If he was having this hard a time with Angeal, Genesis Rhapsodos – Angeal's best friend who he had really only just met but he had kind of a reputation – was going to eat him alive.</p><p>“Good luck,” Angeal said, patting Zack on the shoulder. “Don't forget to submit your own sims or I'm sending you to Sephiroth. A week trying to spar with him and you'll be begging for the VR room.”</p><p>“I'll get my sim times in!” Zack raised his hands as Angeal turned to leave, telling Cloud it was nice to meet him. </p><p>Cloud stuttered out a response which, the moment Angeal was out of sight, morphed into a full blown groan and he punched Zack on the arm. “I told you I'd make an idiot of myself,” Cloud said. “Why didn't you just introduce me on a transport? I could have thrown up and made a better impression!”</p><p>Zack clapped him on the back and laughed. </p><p>“Don't worry so much!” he said. “I promise next time, I'll figure out a way to show him your best side.”</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was written in a day soit's a little rough round the edges. I might come back and fix it up at some point, especially since I would maybe like to write the romantic beginnings - especially for Zack.</p><p>Once again, title is from "Cat People" by David Bowie.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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